Top brass at Kirklees Council are set to go amid a shake-up of senior officials.

The council says it will save almost half-a-million-pounds per year by cutting the number of directors and re-shuffling senior staff.

A review has been launched but documents just published reveal plans to get rid of two of the current five directors.

Director of resources, Dr David Smith, is set to retire and one other will leave.

Sarah Callaghan, Kirklees Council's deputy chief executive
Sarah Callaghan, Kirklees Council's director of children and young people

The cull of council bosses comes just six years after the council saved £1.2m by shaving a number of senior management positions.

The new structure will leave the chief executive with just three senior directors.

The number of assistant directors is also to be reviewed.

Kirklees has one of the leanest senior management structures of all councils.

Chief executive Adrian Lythgo earns between £155k and £160k and the five directors below him taking home pay packets of between £115,000 and £125,000.

Adrian Lythgo, chief executive of Kirklees Council
Adrian Lythgo, chief executive of Kirklees Council

Along with Dr Smith, they are director of children and young people, Sarah Callaghan; deputy chief executive and director of place, Jacqui Gedman; director of communities, transformation and change, Ruth Redfern, and director of commissioning, public health, and adult social care, Richard Parry.

Twelve assistant directors are on salaries of between £80,000 and £94,776 while two officials in the public health department are also in a salary bracket of £80,000 to £100,619.

Richard Parry, director of commissioning, public health, and adult social care
Richard Parry, director of commissioning, public health, and adult social care

Dozens of other senior managers earn in excess of £50,000.

In comparison, Leeds City Council has more than 30 staff on over £100k while Bradford Council’s boss receives a £228,000 pay packet.

Mr Lythgo said the shake-up was not just a cost cutting exercise.

The council has lost more than £170m in funding from the Government in recent years.

He said: “The role of the council and our relationship with residents, business, our regional partners and Government is changing.

Ruth Redfern, director of communities, transformation and change at Kirklees Council
Ruth Redfern, director of communities, transformation and change at Kirklees Council

“In future, we will be working much more closely with partners, for example the health services, with regional bodies like the Combined Authority, and the voluntary sector to deliver the functions we will need.

“This is partly driven by the financial settlements we have received from Government, but also by the need to work differently, to be better at tackling issues early in the process before they become more expensive to manage, and to move away from the traditional sense that the council will provide everything that is wanted rather than what is needed.

“Over the next six months we will move to a senior management structure which will achieve savings of £489,000 per year, but more importantly see us in the right shape to deliver services in the future.

“This is in addition to £1.2 million savings in senior management in 2010.”